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Friday, 23 June 2017

The impact of the nuclear crisis on global health: Helen Caldicott

Dr Helen Caldicott is an Australian physician and a leading anti-nuclear
activist. She is a widely respected lecturer and authority on the topic, and
played an integral role in the formation of the organisations Physicians for
Social Responsibility and International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War.

The latter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. She has won numerous
prizes for her efforts, such as the Humanist of the Year award from the
American Humanist Association.

Due to my personal concerns regarding the ignorance of the world’s media and
politicians about radiation biology after the dreadful accident at Fukushima in
Japan, I organized a 2 day symposium at the NY Academy of Medicine on March 11
and 12, 2013, titled ‘The Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima,’
which was addressed by some of the world’s leading scientists, epidemiologists,
physicists and physicians who presented their latest data and findings on
Fukushima. [1]

Background

The Great Eastern earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, and the
ensuing massive tsunami on the east coast of Japan induced the meltdown of three
nuclear reactors within several days. During the quake the external power
supply was lost to the reactor complex and the pumps, which circulate up to one
million gallons of water per minute to cool each reactor core, ceased to function.
Emergency diesel generators situated below the plants kicked in but these were
soon swamped by the tsunami. Without cooling, the radioactive cores in units 1,
2 and 3 began to melt within hours.

Over the next few days, all three cores (each weighing more than 100 tonnes)
melted their way through six inches of steel at the bottom of their reactor
vessels and oozed their way onto the concrete floor of the containment
buildings. At the same time the zirconium cladding covering thousands of
uranium fuel rods reacted with water, creating hydrogen, which initiated
hydrogen explosions in units 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Massive quantities of radiation escaped into the air and water – three times
more noble gases (argon, xenon and krypton) than were released at Chernobyl,
together with huge amounts of other volatile and non-volatile radioactive
elements, including cesium, tritium, iodine, strontium, silver, plutonium,
americium and rubinium. Eventually sea water was – and is still – utilized to
cool the molten reactors.

Fukushima
is now described as the greatest industrial accident in history.

The Japanese government was so concerned that they were considering plans to
evacuate 35 million people from Tokyo,
as other reactors including Fukushima Daiini on the east coast were also at
risk.

Thousands of people fleeing from the smoldering reactors were not notified
where the radioactive plumes were travelling, despite the fact that there was a
system in place to track the plumes. As a result, people fled directly into regions
with the highest radiation concentrations, where they were exposed to high
levels of whole-body external gamma radiation being emitted by the radioactive
elements, inhaling radioactive air and swallowing radioactive elements.

[2] Unfortunately, inert potassium iodide was not supplied, which would have
blocked the uptake of radioactive iodine by their thyroid glands, except in the
town of Miharu.
Prophylactic iodine was eventually distributed to the staff of FukushimaMedicalUniversity
in the days after the accident, after extremely high levels of radioactive
iodine – 1.9 million becquerels/kg were found in leafy vegetables near the
University.

[3] Iodine contamination was widespread in leafy vegetables and milk, whilst
other isotopic contamination from substances such as caesium is widespread in
vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, rice and tea in many areas of Japan. [4]

The Fukushima
meltdown disaster is not over and will never end. The radioactive fallout which
remains toxic for hundreds to thousands of years covers large swathes of Japan and will
never be “cleaned up.” It will contaminate food, humans and animals virtually
forever.

I predict that the three reactors which experienced total meltdowns will
never be dissembled or decommissioned.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) – says it will take at least 30 to 40
years and the International Atomic Energy Agency predicts at least 40 years
before they can make any progress because of the extremely high levels of
radiation at these damaged reactors.

This accident is enormous in its medical implications. It will induce an
epidemic of cancer as people inhale the radioactive elements, eat radioactive
food and drink radioactive beverages. In 1986, a single meltdown and explosion
at Chernobyl
covered 40% of the European land mass with radioactive elements.

Already, according to a 2009 report published by the New York Academy of
Sciences, over one million people have already perished as a direct result of
this catastrophe. This is just the tip of the iceberg, because large parts of Europe and the food grown there will remain radioactive
for hundreds of years. [5]

Medical Implications of Radiation
Fact number one

No dose of radiation is safe. Each dose received by the body is cumulative and
adds to the risk of developing malignancy or genetic disease.
Fact number two

Children are ten to twenty times more vulnerable to the carcinogenic effects of
radiation than adults. Females tend to be more sensitive compared to males,
whilst foetuses and immuno-compromised patients are also extremely sensitive.

Fact number three

High doses of radiation received from a nuclear meltdown or from a nuclear
weapon explosion can cause acute radiation sickness, with alopecia, severe
nausea, diarrhea and thrombocytopenia. Reports of such illnesses, particularly
in children, appeared within the first few months after the Fukushima accident.
Fact number four

Ionizing radiation from radioactive elements and radiation emitted from X-ray
machines and CT scanners can be carcinogenic. The latent period of
carcinogenesis for leukemia is 5-10 years and solid cancers 15-80 years. It has
been shown that all modes of cancer can be induced by radiation, as well as
over 6000 genetic diseases now described in the medical literature.

But, as we increase the level of background radiation in our environment from
medical procedures, X-ray scanning machines at airports, or radioactive
materials continually escaping from nuclear reactors and nuclear waste dumps,
we will inevitably increase the incidence of cancer as well as the incidence of
genetic disease in future generations....